chortle, v.
(ˈtʃɔːt(ə)l)
[Quite unconnected with churtle.]
intr. A factitious word introduced by the author of Through the Looking-Glass, and jocularly used by others after him, app. with some suggestion of chuckle, and of snort. Also trans., to utter or sing with a ‘chortling’ intonation. Also n., an act of ‘chortling’.
| 1872 L. Carroll Through Looking-Glass i, ‘O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy. 1876 Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly xxxii. 242 It makes the cynic and the worldly-minded man to chuckle and chortle with an open joy. 1886 Referee 18 Aug. (Ware), Mr. Wilford Morgan has been engaged to chortle the famous song, ‘Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen’. 1887 Athenæum 3 Dec. 751/1 A means of exciting cynical ‘chortling’. 1888 Daily News 10 Jan. 5/2 So may chortle the Anthropophagi. 1889 Referee 29 Dec., Many present on Boxing Night fully expected that when he appeared he would chortle a chansonette or two. 1903 ‘A. McNeill’ Egreg. Eng. 28 He would tell you..that he attributed his success..(5) to marrying Mrs. Business-Man—this last, of course, with a chortle. |